332 Report 8. A. A. Advancement of Science. 



(2) It should be dass-teaching ; i.e. the class, rather than the 



individual, should be the researcher, and should, under the 

 guidance of the teachei', proceed to the considei'ation of 

 clear and definite (questions. 



(3) There should be roojn for individuality, especially in the 



laboratory. 



(4) At each stage of the work there should be a clear statement 



and summary of the position attained, and there should be 

 frequent I'evision. 



(5) Constant attentioTi should be drawn to illustrations from 



natural phenomena, every-day life, and practical applications. 



A few remarks by way of development of these ideas will be all 

 we can find time for. 



The plan which I have to suggest, and wjiich I have found to 

 work well in practice, is to map out the work into a number of com- 

 paratively small sections, each of which is the answer to a single 

 definitely stated question. The question may often be introduced by 

 references to the discoverers who have first investigated it, and atten- 

 tion should be directed to the stock of experiential knowledge regarding 

 it which pupils already possess. But, above all, the question must be 

 clearly understood, so that the class may know definitely at what its 

 experimental work is aiming. The teacher should then proceed to 

 develop the answer by experiment. This may be done either by 

 experiments conducted on the lecture table before the whole class 

 with the help of some of the pupils or in the laboratory, the pupils 

 working for themselves at the same or different parts of the same 

 question. Where the work is done primarily on the lecture table it 

 should be repeated with attempts at greater accuracy by tlie pupils 

 themselves in the laboratory. In any case, the results of the various 

 pupils must be compared and summarised, a clear answer to the pro- 

 posed (|uestion must be got from the class, and the teacher should 

 enricli it witli illustrations and enforce it by numerical examples, such 

 being preferred as have a bearing on every-day life. For instance, 

 suppose the question to be the following : " If we take equal weights 

 of different hot substances and let tliem cool equally, will they give out 

 e<iual (juantities (if heat or not?" This is a question whicli readily 

 lends itself to laboratory work. A class of twelve working in si.x 

 pairs could be provided with six different substances, e.tj. water, oil, 

 clean sand, iron, copper, lead, each pair weighing ort' and heating one 

 and dropping into water in a siuiple calorimeter. A class answer 

 would thus be rajiidly airived at ; and a second experiment based on- 

 the pi'eceding results would follow in which weights of the different 

 substances would be taken which would equally heat the water of the 

 calorimeter — leading to clear notions of specific heat and water- 

 equivalent. A numerical example on the rises of temperature of 

 layers of dry soil, damp soil, and water absorbing equal ijuantities 

 of sun-heat would suitably follow and woidd lead tlie way to interesting 

 meteorological developments. 



Before experiments are begun, not only must the question put be 



